‘That the living may lay it to his heart’ (2)

Death, for sure, is stronger than the most powerful man. Imagine during the funeral, you see Aunty inside the casket looking somehow shorter than her usual intimidating height. It does not matter what you say or do, she will never stand up to react. That is Aunty, who would not brook nonsense from anybody, a boss, who could never be frightened by the Army nor the police. It is better that you pocket your male chauvinism when dealing with her. She was not the Managing Director, no doubt, but we had never had an MD more powerful than she. The simplest way an MD could lose his job was to question her on anything she fancied doing.

That is the lady inside that coffin! A few weeks ago, she celebrated what she did to someone that offended her. You cannot deny that she had the guts and that she also knew how to parade her deadly arsenals. Three years ago, you had met her boasting how she would deal with a staff member in her department. The guy had been priding himself that our company’s Chairman is his town’s man, forgetting the number of ‘stubborn’ directors she had sent packing. She wanted to sack him but the Human Resources department frustrated it on legal grounds. She changed tactics by proposing his retirement but the Managing Director saw his name and raised a strong objection that deflated her plan.

Aunty would never give up on any evil crusade she embarked upon. She then proposed to the Management the need of cutting down costs by staff rationalization, a suggestion they bought wholeheartedly. Through persuasion and her ingenuity, they agreed that every department would retire one staff member. That was it, her opportunity to retire Uncle! And she did, which forced him to start his own business. He is now the CEO of his company and from the grapevine we heard that the company is doing well, with even two expatriates on their payroll. At the other side of her casket is the man she hated with passion. His sin was that he always quoted the Bible, condemning the wrong things people do and he would subject every matter to what Jesus would do. There were situations, when some cash had to be extracted from contractors. Why not? If Abuja people do it in Millions of Naira, what is wrong doing the same here in a few hundreds of Naira? Uncle would refuse to eat and clean his mouth, and would preach against it. Aunty retired him but he is now the MD of a thriving company, bigger than ours!

When a man is soaked in iniquity, he is sure to have friends like him, and among them is one close to his heart. Two of them are often seen eating, quaffing, scheming and executing their evil deeds, which may include executive thieving and character assassination. They may go to unimaginable lengths in protecting the interest of each other. One day, sickness may ravage one of them. The healthy one then begins to avoid him, especially, if he, the healthy one, is in possession of thousands of Naira they are still to share. The sick one will be calling him for various reasons and he stops picking his calls, especially, if his friend’s sickness is terminal. The sick one will be sending him messages and he will not reply, making him to be biting his fingers in agony.

He lives in regret for their friendship and cries in pain but the wind will not be kind enough to convey his tears to his friend. He may complain to any ear that cares but nobody pities him until he dies. During his funeral, his friend may not even attend. If he does, it is to confirm that he died really, so that he will settle cheerily on their money in his possession. We learn during burials that in worldly friendship, friends may abandon their friends when their help is needed most.

There were four friends and like the ancient Egyptians, who buried their mummified corpses with huge amounts of money, believing that they would rise one day to use the money. When one of them died, the others decided to put N300,000 in his coffin for his use, when he would wake up. Two of them put theirs, N200,000 cash, while the third one issued curiously a cheque of N100,000.Friendship ko! ‘Let me die the death of the righteous…’ Should even fools, who attended the funeral, not understand what Uncle did?

In one case, as I wrote in one of my books, a certain Uncle could not control his emotions during the funeral of his friend. Nobody could pacify him. He made several attempts to jump into the grave so that he would be buried with his friend. That was a great challenge to the bereaved family, since he was from a different tribe. ‘It is good to have good friends,’ some people were whispering in appreciation. One man was not impressed by Uncle’s emotions. He knew what other people did not know. It was that Uncle was not mourning his friend at all but his money he was losing. His dead friend owed him a huge amount of money! Money is more important to unbelievers than the life of their friend.

Have you attended a burial, where there were three or four caskets, each of the man’s sons, insisting that their dad would be buried in the coffin he bought? Wahala! ‘Let me die the death of the righteous and let my end be like his,’ said Balaam. The family is affected by the type of legacy left behind by their parents. Did Uncle expect anything different? Would his children’s behaviour, like people, who had no leader among them, be strange, since he never brought them together for family devotion, discussion, merriment, etc?

God’s children are different. I told my niece that I knew when she left Deeper Life Bible Church, and against my protest, joined my Church, and the day she left us and joined two other Churches, but that I never knew when she was born-again. During her burial, I pleaded with her Church, a foremost ministry, to be ensuring that their Church workers are born-again. During my uncle’s burial, his Church, a great ministry too, requested a testimony from me about him. Right there, I asked his daughter whether he was born-again, apologizing, however, to his Church for asking whether their Deacon was a child of God. Six months before he died, my wife and I had ministered to him on forgiveness without any result. Not sick, nobody knew that he would soon pass on.

The above have been detailed for you to take note, in case you have not done so during burials. After death, all secrets will be revealed. Sin committed cannot be reversed. The services of SAN will not be necessary. We must be prepared for death and judgment. Beloved, repentance is now!